The Search for Am
by Velvet D'Coolette
Summary: Post Season 2. In the aftermath, Jack and Ianto recover as best they can, and Ianto finds a more secure place by Jack's side. An alien enters through the Rift and it is up to the team to work out how to send it back... Mild gore.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Torchwood are copyright by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Permission to reproduce this specific material may be granted by the author so long as you email first. 2008 .

THE SEARCH FOR AM

_Tosh... Im so sorry, Tosh..._ the thought filtered through Owens mind as he drifted in his prison of liquid lead. He felt the coolant begin to bite into his body, through his clothing and into his thin flesh. He spasmed at the feeling; his already-dead nerve endings only felt the bite fuzzily, but he could feel his skin being eaten away without a doubt. The lead obscured his vision completely as it ravaged his eyes; even before they disappeared he was blind, helpless.

_This is how I finish up,_ he lamented bitterly and flailed angrily. But there was little point in doing so. The burning began to fade away as the lead reached past his nerves; they were gone. He wiggled his fingers experimentally, and recoiled in shock as he felt the flesh break apart. _This wouldnt have happened if Jack hadnt brought me back._

His cheeks were gone; the lead invaded his mouth and pushed air out in bubbles that floated over his cheekbones and disappeared above him. At least his lungs didnt burn; for, undead as he was, he had no need to breathe. But as the lead poured in, the taste was like nothing else he knew. He flinched ineffectually as he sensed the coolant etch into his bones; his muscles were almost gone and could barely assist with movement any more. He wanted to shiver as a hole burned clean through his skull, but he couldnt. _Couldve been... so... different._

The words became fractured. _What happened? Why am I... here... again?_ he wondered, suddenly forgetting he was here. All he knew was that he felt horrible and wanted to escape. He tried to thrash to get his bearings, but without success. _Where?_ Where. Where what? He tried to concentrate, to focus.

_Focus? Focus, yes... The people I used to..._ he stopped; he was trying to remember something, but it wasnt coming. _Who?_ Who was he thinking about?

_Tosshhh... Gwweeennnn... J..._

Thought was too cloudy; the coolant was eating away at his brain. He came to a stop. Nothing was making sense any more. Oblivion beckoned; it was all too cloudy. Owen gave up.

That was the last that the human Owen Harper ever did.

TORCHWOOD

At the Hub, Gwen sat at her desk, grief swirling in acid waves through her muscles, cauterizing her thoughts. Her stomach clenched at the pain of the memories. _Here I go again..._ she thought with a frown. She pursed her lips and bit down with her mind; the tragic events of yesterday were still open and raw, and waves of grief kept coming. And they always came when she least needed them: on the telephone, talking to Jack... But this wave at least was a little more convenient. Quietly, she allowed the tears to flow. Jack and Ianto kept doing the same anyway; there was no shame. Nonetheless she tipped her head forward to let her hair fall forward and hide her swollen eyes.

The atmosphere in the Hub just wasnt the same without Tosh and Owen. Toshs presence always lightened the place, a welcome effect when the work sometimes got too dark and serious. Ultra-efficient, mild, and meekly jovial, that was Tosh.

Was...

And Owen? Sharp and bitter he may have been, and hard to like at first. But underneath it all had been a warm heart, one that wanted above all else to do what was right. A warmth addictive, all the more for being a rare facet of his personality.

She would have given anything to have both of them back if she could.

TORCHWOOD

Jack sauntered past Gwen. He could see that she was crying, and that she wanted to be left to her own devices for now. As he stopped to pick up a report, he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder to let her know firstly that he understood she was upset, and secondly that there was no need for her to speak to him; he already knew where the report was and took it without ceremony. Walking away from her, he headed for his office, his heart as heavy as a rock.

Ianto pottered at a project of his own and looked up to see Jack. Something passed between the pair, something too abstract to define, to do with painful loss, or needy passion, or kinship, or a combination of the three, and the moment passed. Jack felt the Welshmans eyes on his back, pleasurable despite the despairing circumstances. He didnt turn to make eye contact; if he did he was sure he would cry again. Quietly he entered his office and closed the door behind him. The report would be a suitable diversion from the reality of what had happened to Torchwood Three, at least for now.

TORCHWOOD

It was another day at Torchwood Three, and three days after the apocalyptic events that had killed Tosh and Owen. Ianto frowned at the control panel of the computer: he was unpractised at using Toshs equipment and preferred to think twice before doing anything on here. He thought again and he was sure. He clicked.

The reduced numbers at Torchwood had meant an effective promotion for him, and an immediate one at that. Bittersweet though this was, it did instill in him a sense of pride. Finally he was a fully-fledged team member of Torchwood again and he was enjoying the opportunity to finally stretch his wings. Tentatively, for it seemed obscene to enjoy it too much, but enjoy it he did.

The screen flicked from a map showing him the location of the recent Rift activity to a graph displaying the time it had opened. On inspection it transpired that it had been open for exactly 1 minute and 18 seconds, and a blob on the graph showed him that organic activity had passed through. Likely an alien. He turned to look for Jack.

"Jack," he called. The captain turned, alert. "Theres been rift activity. It looks like something came through."

Jack came over to see the screen. "Show me the location."

Ianto hesitated for a second before committing to click the button back to the previous screen. Jack took in the information, nodded his understanding and sprang toward the door. "Gwen! Weve got alien activity, lets go!" Gwen busied herself preparing to leave and Jack picked up his GPS. "Ianto, stay here," he barked. His lover looked at him plaintively. _Dont leave me here,_ the look said, _I want to come too._ Jack looked as if he were about to snap at him but then paused to take a breath. He added more gently and with a ghost of his charming smile, "Keep us posted on any new developments." Ianto felt a little more content with this and turned back to the computer. Gwen was ready at Jack's side, and he swept out of HQ.

TORCHWOOD

_Oh no! Oh no no, no, please. How am I to find Am in all of this?_ the alien wondered desperately. She spread her wings and flapped lop-sidedly into the air. She scanned the ground for evidence of her young brother while a part of her mind watched for a clear flight path. This alien planet, it was full of structures, squarish and tall. Built by the resident fauna, she guessed.

Above the line of the sinister square structures, Ke looked down. Perhaps she could see Am from here. There was a chance. There had to be a chance. _No, I don't see him. Oh, what am I to-_

Down there. There were trees. Ke knew trees well enough; they grew on her home planet. She dived toward them with a gladly-felt stab of gratitude.

The ground was a mass of short plant coverage. Teeth chattering with fear, she dipped her muzzle into it briefly for reassurance. It was possible that Am had hidden in the trees. Ke galloped toward the treeline, but a sudden sense of dread checked her. Over there to her left. There, in full sight, was an alien. Tall and thin, with graceful limbs and colourful plumage. She stared at it, feeling utterly lost for what to do. And it stared right back at her.

A faraway call, and she looked around. There was another one. Ke was worried and she turned again to scan the surrounding area for other signs of life. The first alien scurried away. Had it gone to find more of its own kind? What if these creatures had Am now? What if they were dangerous? Ke cowered in fear for a moment before running away, out of sight of the second alien. The ground beneath her feet turned from plant to grey stone as she entered the alien-made domain...

TORCHWOOD

Jack took one eye off the road to check his GPS. They were almost at their destination, but it had taken them a few minutes to get here. The alien could be a long way from the opening in the Rift by now, but aliens, so long as they were of a carbon-based form, were generally easy to track: you needed only to follow the trail of frightened civilians. Mentally preparing himself for what could be a nasty fight, he turned into the correct road, and parked. Without a word, he and Gwen climbed out and walked toward the bridge.

A woman sprinted down the pathway from the direction of the park, casting her face over her shoulder as if she were afraid she were being chased. Jack shared a glance with Gwen, correctly anticipating that she would deal with this. She stepped forward as the woman got closer.

"Hello," Gwen began in a loud, but characteristically reassuring tone, "Is anything-"

The woman looked from Gwen to Jack and back again. "Are you Torchwood?" the woman asked between heavy breaths.

Gwen glanced at Jack and nodded. "Yes." Although Torchwood were officially known only as Special Ops, outlandish stories of their dealings with aliens had reached many ears. Most considered these stories in the same vein as conspiracy theories: they did not take them seriously. But when a civilian sighted an alien, usually Torchwood's name was spoken before long.

It seemed to Jack that they were on the right track already, but still he left Gwen to do the talking. "What did you see?" Gwen prompted.

The woman looked behind her again. "A bird! In the park. Well, it wasnt quite like a bird but... It looked like a bird. A big white bird," she rambled.

"Is anybody hurt?" Gwen asked. The woman shook her head.

That was all the information they needed and Jack was already prepared to go. He turned smartly back to the SUV and opened the door to climb in. Gwen saw him go and hurriedly turned back to the woman. "Thank you," she said and ran to her side of the car. Jack started the engine and turned the corner to the park.

TORCHWOOD

Ke was at her wits end. The aliens land was divided into long, straight paths lined disconcertingly with their straight-sided structures. She felt claustrophobic between them. More of the tall creatures were on the paths; stinking, angular objects lined the centre of the path. She panted quietly with fear and cast around; she hoped she would find Am soon. Perhaps he was down the next pathway...

TORCHWOOD

Meanwhile, Jack and Gwen had arrived in the park. A few people were there on the path, standing around talking in hushed tones, and on approaching them, it became apparent they were talking about something strange theyd just seen. Gwen joined the conversation.

"Excuse me," she said to the group at large, briefly hoping she had not misjudged the situation. "Have you seen a big, white bird?"

"Yeah," said a man in his 20s with a strong Welsh lilt. "Weird white thing. D'you know what it was?"

At that moment Jacks Bluetooth beeped and he walked away; Ianto had something to tell the captain. As Gwen stayed with the group and tried to dampen the group's speculation as to what the creature was not that she had much to go on yet anyway Jack had a short conversation with Ianto.

"Were on it," Jack replied clearly to the other end of the line. "Gwen!" he called and she waved a hasty goodbye to the group before following him as he ran into the maze of houses and streets. "Guide me, Ianto!"

TORCHWOOD

Ke slowed to a walk and then stopped. She reared up onto her hind legs and looked as far into the distance as she could, although that wasnt far. It seemed she would have to think her way out of this, although how to do so was a question in itself. What to do? Where would Am be?

She turned to face the other way again; as much to comfort herself with something familiar in this alien landscape as anything else. It seemed she had been followed: there were 9, 10... 11 aliens staring back at her. Their combined scrutiny was intimidating and she cowered for a moment. Keeping low, she crawled slowly away, hoping they would let her go if she looked unthreatening. Ahead, the way she had been running, were more of them. 4. Instinctively she spread her wings and felt for a breeze with which to take off. In the close shelter of the structures, there was none. Nevertheless, she beat her wings and launched herself as best she could off the ground, only to be scuppered by the lack of space. Landing with a painful crash, she scrambled to her feet and faced the 4 again. Which had become 7. She began to tremble; she began to despair...

TORCHWOOD

"There!" Gwen announced, noting the crowd gathered at the mouth of the street. Jack had already seen them; he drove toward the crowd to see what they were looking at. He parked and the two of them got out.

Sure enough, there was an alien there. It cowered beside a car, trying to hide. It was slightly smaller than a human, with dirty white feathers and big brown eyes. A pair of wings lay folded untidily about its back. As he approached, taking his time and walking calmly, it regarded him, panting. Then it opened its mouth and said, "Eea huo mee naaka." An alien language.

Quietly, Jack reached for the tranquilizer gun at his waist. "Alright," he soothed the creature, approaching further still, "Im not going to hurt you. Im just going to send you to sleep for a little while." He pointed the gun at it and looked down the barrel.

It stared back at him, its ribs still puffing in and out with hurried breath. Tentatively it repeated, "Eea naaka." He squeezed the trigger.

The dart hit the alien; with a panicked screech it opened its wings and scrambled backwards, it shook, and lowered its head to wipe off the dart. It was unsuccessful; it turned and tried to run away but its muscles were already succumbing to the sedative. With a soft squawk it stumbled, and then its front limbs gave way completely. Jack walked closer to it. The alien turned its head toward him again, slowly, drowsily, and then closed its eyes. It was under.

The crowd drew closer. Jack reholstered the gun and Gwen appeared on the other side of the creature, snapping on a pair of latex gloves. She offered him a pair which he silently accepted. Without any further fuss they picked up the alien and carried it to the SUV waiting on the street behind the crowd.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Torchwood are copyright © by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Permission to reproduce this specific material may be granted by the author so long as you email first. © 2008 .

THE SEARCH FOR AM

_The pterodactyl soared high in the Hub, her eyes flicking from one target to another; weighing up sounds and measuring distance, sniffing for food and analyzing danger._

_The Hub was, mostly, a safe place to be, but no creature survived on complacency. With her sharp eyes and alert ears, she would come to no harm. Of that she always made certain._

_She fanned her wings forward and landed high on the wall, gripping the hard tubing with her worn claws, and strained her neck to look down to the ground. For now, only Mother was present; the others were away. Soon, almost invariably, they would return._

_Although, there had been the recent chain of incidents that led to the death of one of their number. She could still remember the exciting scent of blood, the tangible taste of terror in the air. And another had failed to come back at all since that day._

_Such was life._

TORCHWOOD

Ianto looked up absentmindedly as Myfanwy soared across the diameter of the Hub and landed. She held on tightly to the ventilation ducts and looked curiously down at him. She was probably hungry and would need another feed soon. He made a mental note to do so as his final task for the day.

The sound of the door opening pulled his attention away from the lizard and he turned to look, just in time to see Jack and Gwen enter. Between them they carried a sedated alien of a kind he hadn't seen before. He looked from Jack, who had his back to him, to Gwen, and raised his eyebrows in query. She just offered him a puzzled shrug in return. Casting another quick look at Jack, he asked, "What is it?"

"I don't know," Jack replied without looking around, shuffling toward the cells. "I haven't seen one of these before. Can you open that door?" Ianto got up out of his chair, nonchalantly aware that Myfanwy had just taken off again, and arrived by the door to the cells just before his colleagues. He pressed the cell room button and the door slid open. As Gwen and Jack inched out of view, he headed back to his desk.

TORCHWOOD

_...it's like a passageway..._

_What? Again: Like a tunnel._

_What can I feel? There they are: the edges._

Owen stretched out and felt them again. They were there alright. They were there. Of uncertain form, but present. A kind of passageway. That sped away a huge distance. It couldn't tell what direction it was headed, but it was there. It was a tunnel.

_A tunnel to where?_ It didn't know.

Owen contracted; something was supposed to happen now. But it didn't; it was missing.

_Should have felt something._

_Felt? Felt! There should be more. What's going on?_

Owen puzzled at its situation. Then, it stretched again, just so, and something jolted through it.

_Tosh._

_Tosh?_

What was a Tosh? Tosh meant something; it was important to Owen. And with the position, the configuration that was Tosh came others, by association. Owen stretched into them, testing them and attentive to them.

_Jack. Ianto. Gwen._

That was familiar. Owen did it again.

_Tosh. Jack. Ianto. Gwen._

With those movements came an imperative. Owen tried to piece together the meaning of it all.

_The tunnel. Tosh. Jack. Ianto. Gwen._

It all fit together somehow. Leaving the strange words alone for the moment, Owen tested the end of the tunnel again. It led to a different place from the space in which it found itself, and that distance beckoned seductively. Owen felt that it would fit, that it would be able to travel in that tunnel. It paused.

_Is it a way out? Tosh. Jack. Ianto. Gwen._

Those words, they represented a place. A place Owen decided it should go to. Bunching close for a moment, Owen prepared itself to leach into the tunnel and go to ToshJackIantoGwen.

_Forward._

And Owen was out.

It felt the space in which it now found itself. Long. Fascinating and new; it surged down to the opposite end.

_ToshJackIantoGwen. I'm coming._

TORCHWOOD

Ke stirred her limbs as she came to. She felt groggy and slightly sick, and her left wing ached from the way she'd been laying on it. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked around blearily.

What she saw made her heart sink: she was in a confined space. She rolled onto her belly and stretched herself to greater wakefulness. There were solid walls behind and to both sides of her. A clear but smeary material in front, clearly also some kind of wall. _How long have I been here?_ she wondered. Shakily, she stood up and walked up to the clear wall. She leaned her whole left side against it; she felt it with her muzzle. She looked at it head-on: a ghostly reflection of her own face blinked back at her. It turned misty where she snorted at it, and she watched as the mist disappeared.

She was trapped.

_Am!_ Where was Am? Ke stood up on her hind legs and loped to the corner of the room. She pressed her head against the clear wall again in an effort to see, or to smell, something that might provide her a clue as to what to do.

A dangerous snort thundered past the wall to her right. She knew what _that_ was: a Curcul. With a shudder she moved hastily backwards.

She looked at the clear wall again; there was a squarish section cut out of it, the resulting shape left in. She investigated it, leaning her weight on it and trying to dislodge it. It wouldn't move and she soon gave in.

There were holes near the centre. She walked over to inspect them and fitted her claws into them while she sniffed the air on the other side. _I don't know how to get out of this. Will I never see my family again?_

At a loss for what else to do, Ke wailed. As her voice died away, the chamber became silent. Deathly silent; eerily so.

Ke was used to hearing at least some background sound all the time. Back on her home planet there was always the sound of rustling foliage, or the creak of her kind's tree-suspended habitation. But here there was nothing except the Curcul's heavy breathing and a distant tapping sound from beyond the corridor. Frightened suddenly, she called again, and then again. Anything to keep the silence at bay.

The Curcul, out of sight, snorted its belligerent irritation in return.

TORCHWOOD

Gwen briefly flicked her gaze in the direction of the cells. The new inmate was calling morosely. To Gwen's ears it sounded like crying, but that was hard to tell: it was easy to misconstrue an alien's inflection and tone. Nevertheless, she felt the familiar desire to help it, perhaps try to calm it down, but there was little that could be done. It was likely the alien was highly stressed for the moment and as much as Gwen meant well, she suspected her presence would only serve to aggravate it more. In the relative darkness and quiet, most new inmates calmed down soon enough.

Its voice was high and rough, and she hoped it would fall quiet before the sound grated on her too much.

TORCHWOOD

A rogue crackle of electricity shot along the connection that the Bluetooth earpiece provided from its resting place at the bottom of the lead-filled room.

Owen was fascinated with the possibility of escape; the tunnel lured it, and it travelled obligingly, scarcely able to think, only to do.

With a metaphorical jolt, Owen came to a sudden stop. It was at the opposite end of the tunnel. In and around Owen was a complex network of connections and lines, which it traversed in the hope of finding another way forward. There was nothing. Not for now, at least. _What do do now?_ Owen wondered. _Wait..._

It sensed a familiar presence not far away. Another tunnel, perhaps? No, it didn't feel right. Living? Maybe. Whatever it was, it appealed to Owen. It crackled and evaluated the situation.

Owen had taken the tunnel-like route that had presented itself to it; and finally it had ended up here. Where 'here' was, Owen still didn't know. ToshJackIantoGwen, maybe. It was impossible to tell; Owen still didn't know what that meant. But it did know that it sensed a familiarity in that pattern of that electrical activity nearby and focussed on it unflinchingly...

TORCHWOOD

Jack silently inspected the work Ianto was doing and stood next to the computer. Often he would lean or sit on the edge of the desk, but after the recent tragedy, which had still kept everybody in such a melancholic mood, he felt it more appropriate to stand instead. Now didn't seem the best time to flirt.

He took a quick glance at his watch: it was mid-afternoon. The alien had been calling for a while and he wondered how much longer it would continue.

Ah, it didn't matter.

"Excellent. Carry on, Ianto," he said finally and walked away from his colleague. He cast a vague glance over his shoulder at the Bluetooth receiver on the desk next to the computer, although he wasn't sure why, before moving on.

TORCHWOOD

Gwen stretched her lips in a private expression of sour tolerance; the new alien was still wailing and the sound was beginning to get on her nerves. Perhaps it was worth feeding it.

"Ianto?" she asked.

Ianto looked up from his work. "Yes?"

"What do you think that new alien's likely to eat?"

Ianto hummed in thought for a moment. "Well, according to yours and Jack's description, its dentition's neither that of a herbivore nor a carnivore, and it's not terribly well-armed as a hunter. I suppose it'll be alright with mealworms."

In the background, the alien bleated again. Gwen looked tiredly at the cell room door and then back at Ianto. "Can't hurt to try it with a small bowl, can it?" Ianto shrugged with mild agreement, and Gwen decided.

She got up and walked over to Ianto's desk, next to which stood a file drawer and opened the second-to-bottom section. She peered apprehensively inside at the contents, in particular at the tupperware box and its wriggling inhabitants.

Mealworms were not Gwen's favourite creatures to handle. Despite the shocking things she had seen during her time at Torchwood, still she wasn't comfortable with creepy-crawlies. She rummaged around the drawer, pulled out a stainless steel dinner bowl and put it down on Ianto's computer. It clanked quietly against the Bluetooth receiver...

TORCHWOOD

Owen surged restlessly around the system. It had hoped for the electrical presence to come into contact with the metal; then it might have been able to inspect it, or infiltrate it. But it was not to be; Owen sensed it move away.

Then, something it felt it _could_ infiltrate came into contact; Owen crackled into it.

_Metal again..._

TORCHWOOD

Gwen tentatively opened the tupperware container of mealworms, grimacing slightly at the little creatures as they squirmed in response to the movement and light. She rummaged beside their container for a gardening glove and pulled it on before picking up two handfuls of the dark yellow creatures and dropping them into the steel bowl. With a shudder, the replaced the tupperware lid and shut the drawer.

With the glove still on, she picked up the bowl and walked over to the cell room door. She opened it and stepped inside...

TORCHWOOD

Owen found itself trapped in an irregular-shaped, and small, space. Without the capacity to wonder what it should do, it simply waited...

TORCHWOOD

Gwen entered the cell room and switched on the meagre lights. She waited for a moment for her eyes to become accustomed to the dark. The first thing she saw was the Weevil in his grimy blue boiler suit. He approached his Perspex wall and growled, sniffing curiously through the ventilation holes. Gwen regarded him solemnly for a moment and then looked away; he reminded her too much of Owen, who, after his death, had gained a mysterious authority over these dangerous creatures. Pushing down the inevitable tide of grief, Gwen quietly cleared her throat and took a few steps forward into the newly-visible corridor. The cold, grey walls had finally materialised out of the blackness and now she could see them clearly. As she walked on, the Weevil bellowed at her, which she ignored. She wasn't here for him.

A white-feathered head pressed against the Perspex of the second cell as the new alien struggled to see who had come. Since she had opened the door and come in it had ceased crying; it looked surprised to see her again and stared up at her like a worried toddler. Gwen looked at it for a moment. It looked quite harmless, really, and she wondered just how old it was, whether it was male or female, whether it had a family that missed it.

"Hello," she bantered at the feathered beast as she approached the door and placed her hand on the lock. "I've brought a little something for you to keep you quiet."

It regarded her silently for the moment. Holding the bowl in one gloved hand, she opened the prison door a little and slid the bowl inside. It took a tentative step toward the door as she held it ajar so she hurriedly closed it again, and locked it.

"I'm sorry, you have to stay here for a while," she said gently but assertively, seeing the creature's plaintive expression. She indicated the bowl. "Try some of that," she continued softly. "See if it makes you happier."

"Eeo naak Am." the alien replied simply. Gwen looked it in the eyes sadly, at a loss for what to say. "Am?" It repeated.

Gwen could say nothing of use. With a heavy sigh, she pulled an apologetic face at it and reluctantly turned slowly away to walk out through the door.

She hated leaving the poor creature in the dark, but that was all she could do.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Torchwood are copyright © by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Permission to reproduce this specific material may be granted by the author so long as you email first. © 2008 .

THE SEARCH FOR AM

Ke watched the tall, slim creature disappear out of sight; the rectangle of light swung shut and left her in darkness again. She dropped back down onto all fours and waddled the two or three steps to the curious object the alien had put inside her prison. She felt unable to think of a way out of this place. _I'm trapped,_ she thought. Miserably, she looked at the opening hatch again, but it was resolutely closed. There seemed to be no way out.

She looked at the object again. It appeared to be a bowl, with a mass of writhing grubs inside. Had she been offered food, then?

Her kind - known to themselves as Urvo - were tribal group-livers, and the concept of hospitality was not unknown to them. Yes, rivalries flared and died down between groups - or individuals - but they were intelligent and complex enough to have built a culture that included altruism within its repertoire. Perhaps these aliens were similar. Despite the urgent need to find Am, she decided that, as nothing else was happening, she could only gain from accepting this offer of food.

She crouched to bring her snout closer to the bowl and sniffed at the living contents. They smelled edible, and after her long journey, she was terribly hungry. Out of simple caution, she cocked her head and regarded them for a short while longer, for insects had a habit of defending themselves in unexpected ways. They did nothing. Her trepidation reasonably satisfied, Ke buried her muzzle into the pile of worms...

TORCHWOOD

Owen sparked in the small metal confines of its current space longingly, feeling the living electrical charge just a short distance away. It came closer, then closer... And made contact with the metal. _There!_ Owen thought with a crackle and slid into the structure supporting the electrical charge...

TORCHWOOD

Ke backed up with a snort. The insects, they had attacked her! They had sparked blue in the near-darkness, just briefly, and stung her nose! She shook her head to dislodge the mild stinging sensation, and wrinkled her muzzle. _What a strange form of defence!_ It didn't feel too bad, though; in fact, the sensation had already reduced to a very minor tingle; she was surprised more than anything else.

Then her mind scrambled...

TORCHWOOD

Owen felt a static tingle on his upper lip and clenched his jaws. _Jaws!_ The thought surged with quick clarity through his brain. He had jaws again! _Wha- how? What?!_ He thought incredulously, unable to make sense of the situation. As the realisation that he had a body began to dawn on him, that he had surroundings and could see them, he stretched limbs and tried to move...

TORCHWOOD

Ke felt a cruel, almost instantaneous blocking-out feeling as something spread into her mind. The something forced her to clench her jaws against her will and stirred her limbs. _What's happening to me?_ she panicked. She thrashed to try to regain control of her body...

TORCHWOOD

Owen's body faltered; something was interfering with his ability to move. Adrenaline surged through him, feeling out of place, even though he genuinely was scared. He felt the fear thread its way though his mind... But not the way it should. A lot of things about this didn't fit. The feelings in his arms, for a start. It was almost as if they bent the wrong way.

He looked down at them, and his guts twisted sickly. Horror made his jaw drop as he saw their detail. They weren't human.

Scales.

_Scales! Why have I got scales?_ He begged mentally. He brought his hands - no, _claws_ - up to eye level and examined them, trying to depress the mounting fear that kept on rising. Dreadfully fascinated, he looked for more detail. _Oh, my God._ It got worse: small, greasy white feathers. Only 4 digits. _I'm not human!_ His mind whimpered, shocked. Then the fear caught him full-on and he heaved; his stomach contracted painfully and he dipped his head toward a steel bowl in front of him, half-filled with something he was in too much of a panic to identify. He coughed up a thin gutful of bile, but there was no food in his stomach, and not much he could bring up. Leaning his arms to either side of the bowl, he tried to steady himself and stop panicking. He rested on the ground and panted, feeling the coldness of the floor and willing himself to calm down.

Then a secondary thrill of fear shook him again. The words _Am I going mad? What's happening to me?_ presented themselves in his mind. Owen closed his eyes against them. He didn't know what to do, it was too much! _Go away!_ he begged, but at what he didn't know. For a moment he lay completely still, trying to will the panic to go. It wasn't welcome.

TORCHWOOD

Ke was horrified by these sensations. Her body moved at another's will; thoughts with which she was unfamiliar crackled through her mind. _Scales! Why have I got scales?_ she found herself asking. But she knew perfectly well that she had scales. Why was this a surprise? _Oh my God, I'm not human!_ her thoughts continued, panic laced into the words. She worriedly reviewed this. What was a god? And what was a human?

Then her gut convulsed with pain and she vomited, straight into the bowl of grubs. She was repulsed by the taste; she hadn't vomited since she was tiny. But for now, her body wasn't her own, and it spat the remainder out without her instruction. _Am I going mad? What's happening to me?_ she thought to herself. She was frightened, and wanted it all to go away.

_Go away!_ she repeated in fear. Whatever it was, she wanted it to go.

TORCHWOOD

Owen slowly managed to calm the rampant adrenaline in his system. Slowly it melted away to a background worry, and he opened his eyes again.

Between his paws was the bowl - the one he had thrown up into. He regarded the pool of vomit for a moment while he tried to think what to do. Then it moved.

"Argh!" he screeched in shock and recoiled: maggots! His sick had been full of maggots! He backed away a little more, sat on his haunches and clutched his belly. _I vomited maggots! What's wrong with me?_ He began to pant as his fear spiked again. What on earth was happening to him? He wanted help, and he wanted it now. Jack would know what to do.

_...no, you didn't,_ an alien voice spoke to him.

Owen paused, holding his breath._That came from my own mind,_ he thought. He knew it instantly. As he turned his attention inward, he felt another presence cower, somewhere metaphorical in his mind. It fell silent. The feathers on the back of Owen's neck raised like hackles.

_Pardon?_ He prompted tentatively.

_You... didn't vomit maggots,_ the voice said again, staccato with fear, and submissive. _They were already in the bowl._

TORCHWOOD

Out in the main part of the Hub, all was peaceful. Torchwood 3 were having a lunch break, and between them they sat in an oasis of mid-day peace. Gwen sat back in her chair, sipped her coffee, and gazed into space; on the opposite side of the table Jack scanned a newspaper as he finished a sandwich. Ianto turned the page of a book and settled again to carry on reading. None of them paid attention as Myfanwy soared overhead; she landed clumsily against a landing spot near the top of the Hub and disappeared into an alcove somewhere up there. All was normal.

Gwen tapped a nail against the side of her cup absent-mindedly and thought about the new alien. It had quietened down a lot, except for a brief cry a few moments ago. She wondered whether it had decided to eat its portion of mealworms. Perhaps not yet, if it was stressed. Once it got hungry enough though, she reasoned, she was sure it wou-

"_Jack!_"

A scratchy female voice rose up from the cell room. All three looked up in surprise; Gwen looked to Jack for a response. Jack looked back at Gwen and then Ianto, suddenly alert. _Who was that?_ the question flashed between them. For a moment, nobody moved.

The voice had a familiar accent. It couldn't be possible, it _couldn't,_ but if Gwen didn't know better then she'd say that voice had an unmistakable East London twist.

But that was imposs-

"_Tosh? Ianto?_" it called again sharply and Jack flung himself out of his chair in the direction of the cell room door. Gwen was a fraction of a second behind him; Ianto's chair screeched on the floor as he followed. _Tosh. It said Tosh,_ Gwen thought with dread as she followed Jack. _Please don't let it be him. Please_ let _it be him._

Jack practically thumped the door button and squeezed himself through the half-opened space of the doorway before it had even had a chance to finish opening. Gwen and Ianto followed him down into the darkness of the cell room to investigate.

It seemed impossible that they had heard who they thought they had heard, but strange things had a way of happening at Torchwood, and there was only one way to be sure. Gwen squinted to get her eyes used to the darkness as quickly as possible...

TORCHWOOD

Owen panted as he held onto the Perspex wall, his new claws in the ventilation holes. His thoughts scrambled in several directions at once. They in turn stammered past the thoughts of the body he was inhabiting like two people running opposite ways down a narrow corridor. He sensed that the other presence was capable of taking control, and that thought made him terrified. But it felt weak enough for him to hold back, and with a fair amount of mental force, he realised he was able to repress it.

He had realised where he was: he was in one of the cells in the lower side-room of the Hub. How had he got here? He rested his forehead against the Perspex sheet; he didn't want to try to work that out now, urgently as an answer beckoned. He just wanted to see Jack, and Tosh, and Gwen and Ianto.

He heard a noise: the distant sound of running footsteps. He craned his neck to try to see the door more easily. The feeling in his neck as he did this was strange; this whole body was bent into a different shape to that of a human and just standing up straight was uncomfortable.

The door to the cell room flung open and Jack sprinted in, closely followed by Gwen and Ianto. They looked around the room in hurried puzzlement.

He pressed his head against the Perspex and called out. "I'm in here!" They looked at him and goggled. Jack led them closer, a disbelieving look on his face. Owen looked from him to Ianto. Then he locked eyes with Gwen for a moment, who covered her mouth with shock and felt for the wall, as if need of support. He looked back at Jack.

Jack shared his gaze for a few seconds, his face showing clearly his worry. Again he scanned the assembled faces. Somebody was missing. _Tosh!_ Suddenly his heart was in his mouth. He touched the window. "Where's Tosh?" he asked.

For a moment nobody answered; Jack looked weary but carried on staring at him with an eagle's intensity; Ianto's eyes glistened and he sucked in his lip; Gwen's face took on that haunted look. Owen knew well enough to tell what it meant.

The strength drained from him and he crumpled down onto his haunches. "She's dead," he answered quietly for them. Jack nodded, his own eyes moistening. Owen felt himself cringe with the pain of this awful news.

_Tosh..._ was all he could think.

TORCHWOOD

The conversation moved on. Jack thought over the situation: This was Owen. Those were his facial expressions, that was the way he flicked his gaze restlessly from one person to the next, and that, most definitely, was his accent and his vocabulary; it was all authentic. Jack had no reason to believe this wasn't Owen before him.

Owen's lack of knowledge about Tosh cut Jack deep. But it seemed that it had cut Owen deeper still. As the four of them numbly recited the rest of the conversation as if in a daze, Jack watched Owen hunch closer and closer to the ground in hopelessness.

Eventually, as the words ran out and silence fell between them all, Owen bowed his head and sobbed uncontrollably. The doctor was devastated.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Torchwood are copyright © by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Permission to reproduce this specific material may be granted by the author so long as you email first. © 2008 .

THE SEARCH FOR AM

Jack observed Owen as the young doctor sat at the table; he was attempting to sit on a chair, but clearly found it very awkward, as the angles of his body were now far closer to that of a dog or a cat. Defiantly, he sat with his bottom on the table, at an angle that braced his new tail uncomfortably against the back support of the chair. His right leg kept twitching as if under its own direction, and occasionally tried to brace itself on the seat. Owen seemed to be trying to ignore this, and leaned forward on the table, his claws on his head and his muzzle flat on the tabletop. Those scruffy wings swept from his shoulders and balanced on stiff primaries against the floor: he appeared to be unwilling to try to tuck them in. For now, Owen seemed adamant that he wanted space, and the rest of Torchwood 3 granted him that.

"Oh, bloody hell!" he grumbled and hefted first his right leg, then his left up on to the seat of the chair. Sitting on his haunches, he now seemed far more comfortable, and he settled looking somewhat more relaxed. Those wings still draped, but at least his leg was now still.

Jack watched Owen through all of this. He had decided to release Owen from the prison cell - he was confident that Owen would stay reasonably calm and was in no danger of causing the others, or himself, any harm. He'd said almost nothing since he'd started crying at Tosh's death, but that didn't matter: there was no hurry. Owen would talk in his own good time.

TORCHWOOD

It made a bizarre scene, a winged alien sitting at a table. Gwen looked on from her desk and wondered just when Owen would feel ready for one of the team to broach the subject of him being back with them again. Clearly he was in no state to do so now, but it seemed certain that he was actually alive. Surely a heart was beating in that chest? There was definitely breath in its lungs, because Owen had sobbed; those salivary glands were working, because he had gulped. It seemed that, whatever lay ahead, Owen had a living body once more.

As if in response to her thoughts, Owen looked up and turned that elegant muzzle at her. His new eyes, dark brown and deep, glared with a caustic hardness. "What are you looking at?" he snapped, and Gwen could only smile sadly and look away. There were no answers right now to that question that wouldn't make him even angrier than he already was. Silence was the only peaceable response.

Jack walked past her and up to the table at which Owen sat. There, he pulled himself a chair and sat down opposite Owen. As Gwen watched, they studied each other for a moment; Jack steadfastly stern, Owen defensive and angry. Jack turned his attention to Owen's claws. "We're going to have to make sense of all this," he said simply. Owen looked as if he didn't know how to respond, but he seemed to be trying to find an answer, for he examined those grimy talons as well. Before he could come up with anything Jack continued: "No Torchwood member has ever been turned into an alien before, Owen. We need to sort you out, understand more about this body." Owen looked disinterestedly back at him and settled his chin back on the table top.

TORCHWOOD

Owen's thoughts had slowed down from their previous speedy panicking to a much more comprehensible pace. He still couldn't believe Tosh was dead. A gunshot wound to the abdomen, Ianto had said. He couldn't believe it... Had she lied to him? When they had sat on opposite ends of a phone line, he in the nuclear chamber, she here in the Hub, had she lied to him about her injuries then? The thought made his guts scrunch up and he closed his eyes against the pain.

_Hello?_ a thought filtered into his mind. Still crushed under his grief, Owen barely registered. _Owen. That's your name, isn't it?_ it said.

_Whatever,_ he thought distractedly and buried his muzzled under his arm. He honestly didn't want to bother with the weird alien for now.

_We're in the same body, aren't we?_ the thought insisted. This time Owen turned his attention to it, although he kept his body still.

_Who are you?_ he asked acidly.

_My name is Ke,_ it replied.

Its presence felt meek and simple, and frightened. Owen backtracked on the animosity of his previous question and tried a gentler approach. _Did you get lost, Ke?_ Owen asked, as much for a distraction against the agony in his heart than anything else.

_No, I came here to get my baby brother Am back,_ Ke replied.

_Why's your brother here?_

_A tetraodon kidnapped him and left him here,_ Ke explained.

_Tetraodon?_ Owen asked, unfamiliar with the term. The response contained words but he didn't really pay attention to them; instead, he focussed on an image that the word brought to Ke's half of their consciousness. He focussed his mind's eye on it: it was the image of an alien Owen found immediately familiar. A red, finned head; 6 foot in height, humanoid shape. _It's a blowfish,_ he mused.

_I'm stuck here,_ Ke continued mounfully, _and I can't find Am._

Lost. Away from someone she was trying to protect. That hit a chord with Owen and he felt a stirring of empathy with the beast. "My friends can't understand you," he mumbled as Ke's situation began to dawn on him. He lifted his head. Owen could explain to his friends what she could not.

_You can explain to them, can't you?_

"Yes."

TORCHWOOD

Jack had walked away from Owen, seeing that he wasn't quite ready to talk yet. But he had already planted the suggestion to Owen that it was worth thinking ahead. All he had to do now was wait for the young doctor to gather his thoughts enough to be curious about his new body. Now, although he was busy, he heard Owen quietly talk to himself and he half turned in the doctor's direction to listen a little better.

"Jack?" Owen called over gently. _Sooner than I thought,_ Jack mused, and he turned fully to look at Owen.

Owen's new form still looked strange to him. His colleague's weathered, dull confidence played out by a meek-looking alien. He furrowed his brow as he thought about this. Owen looked keen to talk, and he walked over to sit next to him again.

"What is it?" he asked, ready to listen.

"This alien I'm stuck inside of," Owen began slowly in his London tang, "It's still alive. Her name's Ke." This was news to Jack; a small part of his mind tensed in readiness in case the alien took over. He nodded subtly for Owen to continue.

"She followed a blowfish here. She calls them tetraodons. It had her younger brother. It left him here."

Jack took this in. Then he leaned forward slightly. "Can I speak to Ke, Owen?" he asked.

TORCHWOOD

Owen frowned in concentration. He hadn't taken into account the idea that he might step back from mediating directly between Jack and Ke. Ke, he could sense, was a simple creature and unused to talking to beings of high office. In fact, he was quite sure that she'd never encountered a being with any official status at all; her consciousness was full of the ghost-scent of dry nesting and humid vegetation, the tongue remembered the taste of insects, small mammals, seeds and nectar. She knew nothing of technology and science - not in the way he did. Would she falter? Would she grab control and not let go? How safe would this be, really?

Ke, he was aware, listened to his thoughts as he thought them and flickered restlessly. _Will it be alright, Owen?_ she asked, small and meek like a child. Owen weighed up her fear against his own concerns. He wasn't sure it would be alright - although his fears were mainly for himself.

_I think so,_ he replied before his thoughts could become too coherent. He wasn't sure about the wisdom of this, but her fear - and the urgency to find her brother - was tangible. She needed to find Am, or she would burn herself out with worry. Then what would happen to two minds inside of one body? _Let's try. Can you understand what he's saying?_

_It's tangled. I think I need your help,_ she said.

Owen closed his eyes and tried to open his mind to let Ke come to the fore. It was like leaning on a tightrope to let another person past: it wasn't easy. Clumsily they scraped against eachother, clinging to eachother and trying to move in sympathy but mostly failing. Hoping that the experiment would work but unconvinced, he felt their mouth open and said,

"Naa iyama no..."

_No, no, it's not working. Try again._

"My... brother-eeka tye n-"

_Aarrghh!_ Owen irritably seized control again, sweeping Ke clean out the way and trapping her behind a mental barrier as his temper flared. Without her present, he took several cleansing breaths. Behind the barrier he had set up to keep Ke away from the fore, he felt her stir.

_...Try again?_ she suggested timidly. Owen swallowed, clenched and relaxed his claws, and did so:

"Naa-" No, he still couldn't do it. _Come on, Owen. Concentrate, concentra-_

"It's okay, Owen, Ke. Try again," came Jack's voice. _Jack!_ Owen had forgotten he was even there in the complex struggle between him and the alien!

"Brother..." the next word wouldn't form itself coherently out of the muddle in Owen's brain and he thumped the table top. _"I can't do it!"_ he snapped and glared at the Captain. Jack began to answer but Owen had had enough. "It's too difficult, Jack, I can't do it! Bollocks to this!"

Ke fled from him and huddled in the back of their mind. For a moment he didn't know where she had gone, it was as if she had disappeared. But almost immediately, her presence became discernable again and he located her. As - still annoyed - he turned to her, she dimmed herself. _Please don't hurt me,_ she begged.

_Oh, God,_ he thought, realising that he'd scared her, and - he could tell from the fear radiating from her, by how much. _Look, don't worry. We'll manage. Come on._ She didn't move. Owen took another breath and willed himself to exhale his anger. _Come on,_ he encouraged. And, carefully, she slipped back to his side again at the front of their mind. Sensing her trepidation, he curled around her and the pair sat together, entwined like eels and concentrating on their common goal. _Now, let's try again._

TORCHWOOD

Haltingly, and with frequent switches to Ke's language, Owen and the alien managed between them to tell Jack her story. They told him that Ke had a family on her home planet, and that her parents' most recent offspring had been taken. They had sent her to find the baby - a male called Am - and bring him back. She had followed the tetraodon without much trouble and knew that it had brought him onto this planet, but was now unable to track him down.

Jack listened to all of this, occasionally asking questions: Why had her parents not sent more of the family to help? Why were the tetraodons interested in Am? How had Ke and the tetraodon managed to travel through space and into Earth's atmosphere without dying?

Listening to and answering questions caused Owen and Ke some difficulties at first, but before long they had a manageable grip on their collective ability to do so, and Ke answered, filtering her consciousness through Owen's linguistic ability. Her family held a territory that bordered onto others, and needed to be patrolled and defended on a regular basis. This meant that only a minimum number of group members should be sent after Am. In practice that had meant Ke alone would go. The tetraodons were not particularly well-known among the Urvo, and she hoped that the one responsible for the napping hadn't hurt Am. She seemed to cling to that hope.

The question that wasn't answered so well was that of how Ke had travelled through space. She appeared not to have much knowledge of the technicalities of space travel, even those of her own body. She simply said that she didn't know, but that travel out of the atmosphere of her own planet was simple enough, if tiring. This made Jack a touch suspicious, but he didn't believe there was reason to act immediately. More research could be done. He - or his team - would turn over more information on the matter before long.

They had spoken for a long time, and Owen complained of his jaw and tongue hurting. Together he and Jack guessed that so much talking was rare for Ke, especially in an Earthian language. As he settled onto the tabletop again to let his mouth and throat rest, Jack withdrew to leave him. Owen appeared to be in control, after all.

_**Author's note:**_

_Right, guys. I've been writing this story for months and I wasn't sure how popular it'll be. So although there is more to the story than that, that was the first 4 chapters. If it stirred up enough interest then I'll carry on with the rest of it._

_(And hope that series 3 doesn't conflict with the story too much!)_

_All the best,_

_Velvet._


End file.
